What's Hot: Very effective noise canceling, loud volume and most of all excellent audio quality.

What's Not: Those who are skirmish about pushing earbuds too deep inside might not like the design.

Reviewed by Tong Zhang

RHA is an audio research and engineering center in Glasgow, UK. Their RHA branded headphones and earphones have made to the US and that's a good thing. The RHA MA450i Noise Isolating Earphones are the proof of that. These headphones have excellent audio, loud volume and very comfortable form. The have built-in microphone as well as remote control for music playback. The RHA MA450i comes in both black and white with matching lanyard colors.

Design

Earphones don't all come in the same shapes and designs, just look at the Apple's new EarPods. The RHA MA450i earphones are more in-canal than in-ear. The design might look generic, but the experience is quite unique. The RHA MA450i is designed to completely block off noise as you push the buds deep into your ear canals. The soft silicone ear-tips feel nice in the ear and even when the earbuds extend more into the ear than others, they don't feel uncomfortable. Once the earphones are in place, they create a seal inside of your ears and block out ambient noise almost completely. The earphones are made with airplane grade aluminum and machines perfectly.

The RHA MA450i Noise Isolating earphones has a fabric braided cable that's about 5 feet long and a small built-in mic stick is located right near your mouth when you put the earphones in your ears. The mic stick also has control buttons for volume and play/pause during music playback. The RHA MA450i has a 3.5mm gold plated audio connector. Though the stock ear-tips fit everyone had tried the earphones here, the RHA MA450i comes with 6 additional sets of gel tips in different sizes.

Audio Quality

The RHA MA450i has 10mm drivers and the shape of the chamber, inspired by the aerophonic design of a trumpet's bell, produces not only loud volume but also very clear audio with nice range and surprisingly good dynamic for earbud-style headphones. The interesting design of the RHA MA450i ensures no sound leaks, you can discover this when you pull the earphones just a little bit when you break the noise blocking seal, very little sound leaks out. The RHA MA450i provides very wide dynamic range in all genres we've tested it with, and all tracks including vocals and instruments have amazing clarity for small earbud headphones. Bass is also quite noticeable and you don't lose the balance of the tracks like with many smaller earbuds. We tested the RHA MA450i with several Android smartphones, the iPhone 5 and tablets, and found the performance was quite consistent cross the board.

The RHA MA450i Noise Isolating earphones also has a built-in mic for making phone calls. The outgoing voice was clear and loud using the microphone.

Conclusion

The RHA MA450i Noise Isolating Earphones are one of the best we've seen in recent months. The audio quality is excellent playing all genres and volume is very loud. The headphones are good for making phone calls and they're very comfortable to wear. When you put them on, be sure to push them deep into your ear canals and when you do that, they provide one of the best noise isolation functions we've seen on earbuds.